The present invention relates to an optical disk apparatus that reads data recorded on an optical disk such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) or a CD (Compact Disk) and records data.
Heretofore, optical disk apparatuses that record data such as video and audio, and read (playback or reproduce) recorded data with respect to optical disks such as DVD and CD have become commercially viable and are in widespread use. Optical disks include CD-R, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RAM, CD-RW and DVD-RW for recording (hereinafter, “recordable optical disk”) and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM for playback only (hereinafter, “read-only optical disk”). Further, recordable optical disks include write-once optical disks such as CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R, and rewritable optical disks such as DVD-RAM, CD-RW and DVD-RW.
These optical disks have played a key role in the IT era due to their high compatibility.
For example, a user who has recorded data such as video and audio to a recordable optical disk using one particular optical disk apparatus can playback the data recorded on the recordable optical disk using a different optical disk apparatus. Further, the user is also able to record data such as video and audio to the recordable optical disk using a different optical disk apparatus.
On the other hand, optical disk apparatuses such as that described in JP 2003-162884A have been proposed.
However, in the above conventional example, problems also arise from this high compatibility. For example, in the case where a first user (user A) has recorded his or her favorite video or audio data to a recordable optical disk, it is possible that another user (user B) might record data to the recordable disk by mistake. This problem is compounded in the case of a rewritable disk in that data recorded as one's favorite could possibly be overwritten.
Thus, a problem with conventional optical disk apparatuses was that user B might record data to user A's optical disk by mistake. Or user A might record data to user B's optical disk by mistake.
The optical disk apparatus shown in JP 2003-162884A, in which the usable capacity of an optical disk is set for each user, is premised on the sharing of a single optical disk by a plurality of users. This optical disk apparatus is thus similar to the above conventional optical disk apparatuses in the sense that someone else's data may be recorded to user A's optical disk. Consequently, with this optical disk apparatus, problems similar to the above conventional optical disk apparatuses arise.
An object of the present invention is to provide an optical disk apparatus that allows a specific user to have exclusive use of an optical disk loaded in the apparatus body, and prevents recording to the optical disk by anyone other than the specific user.